The Forgotten Scholar: Georg Zoëga (1755–1809) Culture and History of the Ancient Near East Founding Editor M.H.E. Weippert Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Stökl Editors Eckart Frahm W. Randall Garr Baruch Halpern Theo P.J. van den Hout Leslie Anne Warden Irene J. Winter VOLUME 74 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/chan Block-statue from the Quirini Collection, carbonpencil on paper related to nksb fol., XIII, 3.4, n. 3 (THMA, inv. n. D1192, by kind permission of the Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen). The Forgotten Scholar: Georg Zoëga (1755–1809) At the Dawn of Egyptology and Coptic Studies Edited by Karen Ascani, Paola Buzi and Daniela Picchi LEIDEN | BOSTON Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The forgotten scholar : Georg Zoega (1755–1809) : at the dawn of Egyptology and Coptic studies / edited by Karen Ascani, Paola Buzi and Daniela Picchi. pages cm. — (Culture and history of the ancient Near East, ISSN 1566-2055 ; volume 74) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-29023-5 (hardback : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-29083-9 (e-book) 1. Zoega, Georg, 1755–1809. 2. Zoega, Georg, 1755–1809—Archives. 3. Archaeologists—Denmark—Biography. 4. Egyptologists—Biography. 5. Egypt—Antiquities. 6. Coptic Church—Historiography. 7. Coptic Church— Study and teaching. 8. Rome—Antiquities. 9. Numismatics, Ancient. I. Ascani, Karen. II. Buzi, Paola. III. Picchi, Daniela. IV. Ascani, Karen. CC115.Z7F67 2015 932—dc23 2014046983 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual ‘Brill’ typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1566-2055 isbn 978-90-04-29023-5 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-29083-9 (e-book) Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Contents Preface xi The Organizing Committee Introduction 1 Karen Ascani, Paola Buzi, Daniela Picchi Zoëga and His Time 1 Georg Koës and Zoëga’s Manuscripts Preserved in The Royal Library in Copenhagen 15 Ivan Boserup 2 Relics of a Friendship. Objects from Georg Zoëga’s Estate in Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen 25 Kristine Bøggild Johannsen 3 Georg Zoëga in lettere 36 Karen Ascani 4 Georg Zoëga und Christian Gottlob Heyne 44 Daniel Graepler 5 Zoëga e la filologia 57 Alessandro Bausi 6 Georg Zoëga as Art Critic 67 Jesper Svenningsen 7 An Antiquarian Depicted. The Visual Reception of Georg Zoëga 77 Anne Haslund Hansen 8 Georg Zoëga and Friedrich Münter. The Significance of Their Relationship 87 Tobias Fischer-Hansen viii contents Zoëga and Numismatic Studies 9 Zoëga studente di numismatica. Il soggiorno a Vienna (1782) e i contatti con Joseph Eckhel 101 Daniela Williams and Bernhard Woytek 10 Zoëga, pionnier de la numismatique alexandrine 111 Laurent Bricault Zoëga and the Origins of Egyptology 11 On the Origins of an Egyptologist 123 Thomas Christiansen 12 In visita alla ‘Grande Galleria’: l’antico Egitto a Firenze 132 Maria Cristina Guidotti 13 The Egyptian Antiquities in Bologna and Venice at Zoëga’s Time 140 Daniela Picchi 14 Georg Zoëga and the Borgia Collection of Egyptian Antiquities: Cataloguing as a Method 151 Rosanna Pirelli and Stefania Mainieri 15 A Concealed Attempt at Deciphering Hieroglyphs 160 Paul John Frandsen 16 “Covered with the Rust of Egyptian Antiquity”: Thomas Ford Hill and the Decipherment of Hieroglyphs 174 Patricia Usick 17 De origine et usu obeliscorum: Some Notes on an Eighteenth-century Egyptological Study 185 Emanuele M. Ciampini contents ix Zoëga and the Origins of Coptic Studies 18 Gli studi copti fino a Zoëga 195 Tito Orlandi 19 Chénouté et Zoëga : l’auteur majeur de la littérature copte révélé par le savant danois 206 Anne Boud’hors 20 The Catalogus codicum copticorum manu scriptorum qui in Museo Velitris adservantur. Genesis of a masterpiece 216 Paola Buzi Zoëga and Rome 21 Il collezionismo di orientalia nella Roma di Pio VI 227 Beatrice Palma Venetucci 22 Georg Zoëga e gli scavi nel territorio laziale 237 Beatrice Cacciotti 23 Friederike Brun, Elisa von der Recke and Georg Zoëga: Members of the ‘Universitas of Rome’ 248 Adelheid Müller Index 259 Preface A fruitful cooperation between the Archaeological Museum of Bologna, the Danish Academy in Rome, and the Department of History, Cultures and Religions of the “Sapienza” University of Rome was the starting point for the international scholarly project and conference “The Forgotten Scholar: Georg Zoëga (1755–1809)”, held in Bologna and Rome from 27th to 30th October 2013. The close relationship between the Danish and Italian scholarly com- munities has thus been strengthened in the name of the polymath Georg Zoëga. Renowned for his work within the fields of Numismatics, Archaeology, Egyptology and Coptic Studies, Zoëga was a figure of outstanding importance both in Rome and in Europe, at the end of the eighteenth century. To disseminate knowledge is the great privilege of cultural institutions such as museums, academies and universities, and this project represented an exceptional occasion to rediscover the largely unknown scientific legacy of a scholar who quite suddenly, and almost inexplicably, disappeared from view in the early nineteenth century. Thanks to the cooperation of many institutions, both Italian and Danish, and the fundamental economic support of the Carlsberg Foundation and Karen Ascani’s Fond, it was thus possible to encourage a critical reading of Zoëga’s legacy. Owing to the efforts of the many scholars involved in the proj- ect, a huge amount of unpublished archival documents have become the com- mon heritage of the international scholarly community. Writing history is a constant, never ending story, and new research projects related to Georg Zoëga are already being created as of now. This can be consid- ered the project’s foremost achievement. The Organizing Committee Introduction Karen Ascani, Paola Buzi and Daniela Picchi History can be ungenerous towards those who are involved in writing it. Such has been the destiny of Georg Zoëga, a distinguished Egyptologist, Coptologist, Archaeologist, and Numismatist, whose scientific and cultural contributions— highly valued by his contemporaries—fell almost entirely into oblivion with the end of the Enlightenment. Born in Denmark from a family of Venetian origin, Georg Zoëga had firm cultural roots both in his native country and in Italy, where he lived from 1783 until his death in 1809. Rome and the scholarly circle under the patronage of Cardinal Stefano Borgia became Zoëga’s home, where he welcomed many international scholars, ‘celebrities’, and dear friends, such as Goethe, Heyne, Dolomieu, Münter, Thorvaldsen. In 1769 Stefano Borgia,1 who was born in Velletri (Rome) in 1731 and died in Lyons in 1804, began to set up a collection, containing precious objects and curiosities from all over the world. The Museo Borgiano, on display at the Borgia Palace of Velletri, became one of the must-see destinations of the Italian Grand Tour, visited by scholars and other interested, mostly foreign, travellers, on their way from Rome to Naples. It was one of the most famous encyclopaedic museums in Italy, relevant also at European level, the only eighteenth-century residence-museum in Europe boasting Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, Pre-Latin, Roman, Arabic and Indian texts and artefacts, besides Medieval paintings and liturgical objects, maps, and the like that the Catholic missionaries would send to Borgia, as Secretary (and later Prefect) of the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide. In particular, the Cardinal reserved a special predilection for ancient Egypt, to the point of creating the richest Egyptian collection in Europe before the Napoleonic expedition. 1 The bibliography dedicated to Cardinal Borgia is extremely large. See, in particular, H. Enzensberger, Borgia, Stefano, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, (Roma: Treccani, 1970), 739–742 and Paolino da San Bartolomeo, Vitae Synopsis Steph. Borgiae S.R.E. Cardinalis Amplissimi, S. Congr. de Propaganda Fide Praefecti Curante P. Paulino a S. Bartholomaeo Carmelita Disclaceato, (Romae: apud Antonium Fulgonium, 1805). Paolino da San Bartolomeo, a Carmelite monk of Austrian origin and an expert in oriental languages, thanks to his close friendship with the Cardinal, gave a very effective description of his personality and his scientific interests. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���5 | doi ��.��63/9789004�90839_00� 2 Ascani, Buzi and Picchi At the request of the Cardinal, Zoëga dedicated himself to rearranging the Alexandrinian coins of the Museo Borgiano and published the relative cata- logue, Numi Aegyptii imperatorii prostantes in museo Borgiano Velitris, in 1787. In the meantime, inspired by such a stimulating environment, he passionately studied the hundreds of Egyptian antiquities collected by his benefactor and prepared the Catalogo dei monumenti egiziani nel Museo Borgiano composto ed ordinato dal Sig. Giorgio Zoega dotto Danese nel mese di Ottobre del 1784, which remained unpublished. This catalogue is fundamental to an in-depth knowl- edge of the Borgia collection and of Zoëga’s methodological approach to the study of Egyptian material culture. Moreover, being also a brilliant philologist, he was charged by Pope Pius vi to write a dissertation focused on Roman obe- lisks, the meaning of whose inscriptions was, at the time, completely unknown.